The infant classroom is thoughtfully designed for infants aged 6 weeks to 15 months to support their development in movement, coordination, balance, eye-hand coordination, and sensory stimulation. Infants are encouraged to explore their world freely through their senses of taste, touch, smell and sight. We foster independence by placing all activities on low shelves, allowing children to choose and participate at their own pace.  Infants follow an individualized schedule, coordinated with their home routines. As they near readiness to join the toddler community they transition to the toddler schedule for food and sleep.

Younger infants are placed on movement mats near mirrors and mobiles. The mats allow children to freely move all parts of their body. By observing themselves in the mirror, they begin to develop a sense of identity and an understanding of their own body. The mobiles not only introduce them to the world around them, but also build self-confidence and curiosity. As  they touch or kick the mobiles, they realize their ability to impact their environment. Teachers are always present in this areas, ensuring safety while offering freedom for exploration. Mobile children are free to move around the environment and choose activities.

Infants can join the program five days a week, with options for either half day session from 8:30am to 12:00pm or full day session from 8:30am to 3:00pm. An infant after-school program is also available  from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.

Our Montessori Toddler Community is designed for children aged 15 months to two years and nine months. Toddlers can attend school five days a week, with options for either half-day sessions (from 8:30am to 12:00pm) or full-day sessions (from 8:30am to 3:00pm). We also offer after-school care for toddlers from 3:00pm to 5:30pm.

The eBridge toddler program offers young children the opportunity to socialize and learn within a small group of similarly aged peers. In the Montessori environment, toddlers develop practical life skills as they learn to care for themselves, their classroom, and even prepare food for themselves and their peers. Toddlers are in the sensitive period for language and movement, our environment is intentionally designed with opportunities for language development, physical movement, and coordination. Singing, dancing and exposure to different types of music are also part of the toddler curriculum.

The furniture and materials in the Montessori toddler environment are appropriately sized and carefully arranged to support the development of concentration, coordination, and independence. The environment is engaging, calm, orderly and consistent, helping toddlers feel comfortable, welcomed, safe and motivated to explore. Through their experience in a Montessori setting, toddlers build self-help skills, self-confidence, self-esteem, a sense of competence, and self control. Most importantly, they develop focus and a love of learning. These foundational skills prepare them for future social and academic learning.

Our teachers work closely with parents to support children’s toilet training in the toddler program. When a child shows signs of readiness, we collaborate with families to ensure a consistent toilet training process between home and school. Teachers gently guide children through each step, reminding children to use toilets as needed, teaching them to dress/undress themselves, flush the toilet, wipe properly and wash hands thoroughly. This supportive approach fosters independence and builds confidence during this important developmental milestone.

Our primary program is for children from 2.9 to 6 years old. Children attend school Monday to Friday either half day, from 8:30am to 12pm, or full day, from 8:30am to 3pm. The multi-age classroom is a unique and perfect environment that allows children to start as beginning learners and develop into responsible role models and leaders. Children build academic skill and knowledge while having the opportunities to follow their individual interests and pace.

During the primary work cycles children receive small group and individual lessons and practice work on which they have had lessons. Children move at will during this time choosing work with the support of the teachers, socialize and meet basic needs at will. This time closes with a group gathering for music and stories.

The afternoon work cycle is another extended period for lessons and practice for the kindergarten and preK children while the younger children are in the nap room. This is when many of the more involved lessons in the content areas will be first introduced. It opens and closed with a gathering for stories, music or other sharing.

Daily Schedule

• 8:00 – 8:30 Morning Care
• 8:30 – 11:30 Morning Three-hour Work Period
• 11:30 – 12:00 Outdoor Recess & Half-day dismissal
• 12:00 – 1:00 Lunch & Clean up
• 1:00 – 3:00 Afternoon Work Period/ Nap & Full-day Dismissal
• 3:00 – 6:00 After-school Recess, Snack & Activities
• 6:00 School Closed

Practical Life

As children grow they are naturally motivated to do as much as they can for themselves. They strive to take care of themselves and the world around them independently. The exercises of Practical Life help children fulfill this desire, which is every bit as important developmentally as the acquisition of language or future capacity to reason. These activities are designed to support functional independence and serve to aid the child in gaining control of the hands, exercise and strengthen memory through experience following sequences, and supports a growing awareness within the child of the relationship between practice and learning through direct experience.

Practical Life exercises include many tasks children see as part of the daily life in their own homes: washing and ironing cloths, doing dishes, arranging flowers and washing tables. Another aspect of Practical Life is the human component of learning to get along with a group. We call these exercises Grace and Courtesy lessons. These lessons help children to know how to act properly in a social setting.

Sensorial

Dr. Montessori designed the Sensorial materials used in the primary classroom. Dr. Montessori carefully selected each material and connected activity to clearly demonstrate qualities found in the world such as: color, shade, size, shape, texture, musical pitch, geographic features and botanical shape. Children explore and discover concepts about the world around them using these materials. Teacher solidify their learning through language lessons that support children in using the concepts to share orally and through reading and writing as they are ready.

Language

The Montessori approach to language in the Primary classroom is multifaceted. We provide an experience of rich and precise language through spoken activities, games, stories, songs, poems and conversations. We address each child’s growth towards fluent reading and writing over time from a holistic viewpoint that includes preparation of the mind, hand and eye.

“When the children come into the classroom at around three years of age, they are given in the simplest way possible the opportunity to enrich the language they have acquired during their small lifetime and to use it intelligently, with precision and beauty, becoming aware of its properties not by being taught, but by being allowed to discover and explore these properties themselves. If not harassed, they will learn to write, and as a natural consequence to read, never remembering the day they could not write or read in the same way that they do not remember that once upon a time they could not walk.”

-Dr. Maria Montessori

Mathematics

The mathematics materials developed by Dr. Montessori help the child learn and understand mathematical concepts by working with concrete materials. This work provides the child with solid underpinnings for traditional mathematical principles, providing a solid foundation for abstract reasoning. Children are able to build their mathematical abstractions from tangible experiences, which makes understanding deeper and them more proficient in the long run.

Cultural Extensions

Geography, History, Biology, Botany, Zoology, Art and Music are presented as extensions of the sensorial and language areas. Children learn about other cultures past and present, and this allows their innate respect and love for their environment to flourish, creating a sense of solidarity with the global human family and the Earth.

Experiences with nature in conjunction with the materials in the environment inspire a reverence for all life. History is presented to the children in part through art and music.

The Montessori elementary environment balances the child’s developing imagination and powers of abstraction with concrete and hands-on materials. Each material has its structured sequences to lead to discovery and understanding.

Like the Montessori primary class, the Montessori elementary class is also a multi-age class. Within the classroom, students have the freedom to explore all the materials in all subject areas, and pursue their own interest at their own pace. Our teachers observe children and guide children into areas of natural interest.

The Cosmic education in the Montessori elementary curriculum sets the stage to develop a global view on how everything in our cosmos is dependent and interrelated to others and our place in it. This understanding brings with it a desire to contribute to the world with wisdom and compassion. The elementary curriculum is built around the five Great Lessons given at the beginning of each year:

1. The Story of the Universe explores the formation of the stars, the sun and the earth.

2. The Coming of Life introduces the children to the idea that life has not always existed on our planet, and that its coming signaled a new balance on the earth.

3. The Coming of Humans emphasizes the coming of humanity to the earth as a thinking, loving, working form of life.

4. The Story of Communication in Signs presents language as a part of history, investigates the various milestones that served to create the alphabet.

5. The Story of Numerals introduces the child to the history connected with our numerals.

The great lessons are connected stories that span the enormous historical frames of time and space. From this core of story framework emanate the details of the disciplines: science, mathematics, social studies, and language. The story provides an overview, stimulates the imagination and provides holistic lessons. The students then study the subjects in detail: biology, chemistry, geology, geography, physics, history, art and music. Because of the unifying thread of the Great Lessons, no subject is studied in isolation from the others. Throughout all subjects, the Montessori teacher has the opportunity to instill in students a sense of being connected to all things in the universe.

As an extension of classroom study, when our classroom does not contain the answers to all of the students’ questions, students will go out based on individual or small group interest. Students plan their own “going out” excursions, call the institutions to be visited, and work out their transportation needs. This experience help them to connect with outside world, gain further information and stimulate imagination for further study.

Our elementary students also attend Physical Education weekly at the YMCA, Music in the class and through Chorus, as well as Spanish class.